On the first day of the annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference, newly appointed sole CEO of SAP Bill McDermott urged us to think differently about business.
During his deeply disruptive speech he invited the audience to reassess and re-evaluate the fundamental constituents of a corporation.
His first ‘ordre du jour’ targeted the relationship between consumer and enterprise. McDermott believes that the hierarchy within corporations hinders the relationship to the consumer and therefore complicates the process of production. He went as far as to compare the corporate structure to that of an onion, for which reaching the epicenter requires tears. His main point: it shouldn’t be this hard.
Through this metaphor he tackled the heart of the problem –how did it all get so complex? Why do CEOs have to rely on multiple outsourcing firms to figure out their balance sheets? Is there a way to control all these unforeseen additional costs?
Bill McDermott has made it his personal mission to beat complexity and help his customers run simple. As he very eloquently put it, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.
SAP is paving the way for leaders to remove complexity. Even as CEO, McDermott deplores the endless and inconclusive conference calls and internal meetings. He demands us to “stop playing office”. This seemingly light interjection hides a very crucial message. Bill McDermott wants to empower his employees by getting rid of bureaucratic processes that have been slowing down productivity for years.
Today, thanks to predictive analytics we can now invest in what is really going to matter in the future. With SAP HANA, previously non-analyzable data can now be used to make accurate projections for the next order of business.
SAP has perfected SAP Fiori, a beautiful and engaging platform which allows an integrated experience to monitor all aspects of business within the cloud. Running simple today means leveraging the cloud. It is now possible to run an entire enterprise on the SAP Business Suite. This has proven to significantly reduce costs for companies and opens the door to endless possibilities.
We are living in a new fast pace world with incredible potential, but we can’t sell yesterday’s methods to achieve tomorrow’s dream. There will be massive positive impact on all industry sectors ranging from healthcare, to consumer goods to sports. SAP Fiori is a true revolution in the world of business software which will allow us to change the world together.